The Last Housewife: A Novel

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The main character was extremely conniving and sneaky. From the start her personality felt forced and overly dramatic and I just wasn’t buying into it. This distracted me and overshadowed any sort of enjoyment I may have found within the storyline. It's not every day I finish a novel and decide right then and there that the author is now an auto-buy. While I was anticipating a great story from Winstead, I wasn't expecting to inhale her new book in one breathless read. The Last Housewife is a propulsive, unputdownable thriller with a dark, beating heart. It chilled me to the bone, and I'm still recovering. Ashley Winstead, I bow down." — Jennifer Hillier, author of the bestselling Little Secrets THIS BOOK. I haven’t read a book in a long time that I couldn’t put down and when I had to I would count down the minutes until I could read it again. Let me preface this by saying PLEASE read the content warnings. This book has really dark content and has many scenes with violence against women depicted.

This amazing author: Ashley Winstead can write a hell of amazing romcom and she can also create the darkest thriller story which could give me real nightmares at the same time! In addition, I loved the four passages referencing Scheherazade cleverly threading the famous tale into an ubiquitous underlying theme. Most know of the bride in One Thousand and One Nights who becomes the Sultan’s wife to save other women from execution after one night of marriage with him. A dark, twisted tale of feminism and patriarchy, Ashley Winstead has given us a gripping story about a cult and the ways in which women became psychologically bound, while at the same time exploring themes of power and redemption. Timely and terrifying, The Last Housewife will haunt your dreams and change the way you view the world." — Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell The "mystery" was entirely secondary to Marie's endless ramblings, and resulted in a conclusion which was anti-climatic, at best. The key element throughout the book is Marie's relationship with Nina, who was her best friend at school and art college. Marie is now a photographer, and her work forms an important ingredient to this novel. Marie is a clingy sort of person; jealous of anyone else, male or female, who becomes close to Nina. Following Nina’s marriage to Stuart, they soon have two children, but their happiness isn’t to last, when Nina is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

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Special thanks to NetGalley and HARLEQUIN/Graydon House for sharing this intriguing ARC in exchange my honest review. The message we are taught as women is that the ultimate goal is to have people like you. Shay really grapples with the fact that the way for her to gain power is to play by the men’s rules but in the process she is giving up her agency. The story also explores whether sexualization of women gives them power over men or the other way around. Truly so much to think about and I think it would be a perfect book to buddy read and discuss with friends. I think when I read the synopsis of this book.. what I thought I would be reading and what I got were two very different things. I read this in approximately 24 hours, and my mind still can't handle exactly what happened. I barely breathed through most of this horrifyingly engrossing story, so consider yourself warned." — Good Housekeeping, 20 New Book To Add To Your Summer Reading List

The Last Wife by Karen Hamilton is a thriller that centers around jealousy and deceit. This one is the story of two women who were once best friends, or so it seemed. The water was intoxicatingly warm, like silk against my skin. Silk.... isn't warm???? I think you meant "The water felt intoxicatingly warm and silky against my skin." Good try though.

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where this missed the mark for me is the MC. i could not stand her and, if she was a real person, i would never want to interact with her. ever. and while i think thats the point, to show she is a product of her past traumas and so she treats others at collateral damage, its done so well that i just did not care for her. My insides are rattling , my hands can’t seem to shaking . The Last Housewife, is not for the faint of heart . This book is fascinating, dark, deep, and like nothing I have ever read before . While in college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best friends met a captivating man who seduced them with a web of lies about the way the world works, bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape. Now, eight years later, Shay's built a new life in a tony Texas suburb. But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel's death―delivered, of all ways, by her favourite true-crime podcast crusader―she begins to suspect that the past she thought she buried is still very much alive, and the predators more dangerous than ever. I was super impressed with ashley’s first debut novel, in my dreams I hold a knife, so I literally screamed when I received the arc for this one. and I screamed the whole way through.

The Last Housewife is the story of Shay who has just heard the news that she has lost a second friend from college to suicide. Shay is convinced that something is rotten in Denmark and another college pal Jamie feels the same so they decide to do some poking around.

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However, Alexis Van Aiken’s narration of the audiobook is very well done and there are a few decent twists at the end. Please, please, please see the content warnings for this book before going into it. Be safe and make sure you're in a good place becuase this book is DARK! writing the book in a single POV (which usually isn’t my favorite) was perfect, due to the fact that it was split between podcast transcripts and first person narrative. the transcripts were a wonderful way to see more into the main character’s head as she was interviewed - asking the questions flat out instead of beating around the bush. As a massive fan of Winstead's 2021 debut "In My Dreams I Hold a Knife", her newest thriller "The Last Housewife" was easily my most anticipated read of 2022! Ashley truly has a gift in storytelling, and her characters, setting, and plot progression are commendable. While this wasn't an immediate favorite like her previous novel, I did enjoy the drama and salacious nature of the narrative.